Black & Veatch, Oregon City Upgrade Row River Water Treatment Plant

The opening of the upgraded and expanded Row River Water Treatment Plant in Cottage Grove, Ore., was recently celebrated by representatives from Black & Veatch, city council members, public works employees and the general public.

“This design-build project was executed efficiently and delivered within the budget and on schedule by our joint-venture team,” said Dan McCarthy, president and CEO of Black & Veatch’s global water business. “The citizens of Cottage Grove now have an advanced treatment facility that will provide them with sustainable supplies of safe, high-quality drinking water.”

Upgraded to meet more stringent drinking water requirements, the facility now features advanced technology with the use of pressurized microfiltration membranes in place of the conventional granular media filtration process used at the facility since its original construction in 1992.

The plant’s capacity also was doubled from 2 million gal per day (mgd) to 4 mgd to compensate for the city’s decommissioning of the Layng Creek plant. To keep pace with future population growth, the reconstructed plant is expandable to 8 mgd with minimal increase to the plant’s operating area.

A new 8-mgd intake structure was installed on the Row River, which features an air-burst screen-cleaning system and National Marine Fisheries Service-compliant fish screens. In addition, to increase stream flow and improve fish habitat, one small dam was removed, and another dam is scheduled to be removed this year.

The improvements were designed, permitted, constructed and commissioned in less than two years by the joint-venture team consisting of Black & Veatch and the Slayden Construction Group.

“This state-of-the-art facility is the third membrane project completed by Black & Veatch in Oregon,” said Dave Mahaffay, Americas West Region senior managing director for Black & Veatch’s global water business. “It was a collaborative effort between the city, Black & Veatch and SCG to construct the project and meet the city’s expectations.”